Blogtober 2023
The number of ambulances and police vehicles in the parking lot of the funeral home made it look like the scene of a major highway collision. Clarkton knew that Nicole would be swamped with checking in the bodies, so he sat in his vehicle and smoked while they waited.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before that fracking collapse, have we?” Murphy asked.
“I’ve been here for 30 years, and I’ve seen some strange shit, but nothing like this,” Clarkton said.
“Whatever this thing is, then,” Murphy continued, “the fracking operation disturbed it and set it loose.”
“That’s a logical assumption. Where are you going with it?”
“I’m not sure,” Murphy said. “How long was it underground? Are there others like it? Predators kill for food, but this creature reanimates its victims…why?”
“All excellent questions,” Clarkton said. “Let’s ask Nicole if she has any answers.”
Nicole looked exhausted—she had hardly slept in two days—but her eyes were bright with excitement when she saw Clarkton and Murphy.
“Come back to my office,” she said. “I don’t want this news to get around.”
They followed her, and she shut the door behind them.
“The lab in Cape doesn’t know what the black goo is,” she said.
“That’s hardly news to keep quiet, Nicole,” Clarkton said.
“They do know what it isn’t,” she said. “It’s a complex set of hydrocarbon chains linked to a combination of heavier elements, most of them radioactive.”
“What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t come from Earth.”
Photo credit Adobe Stock #227354034
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